Major medical associations release PSA urging vaccination

The leading U.S. professional groups for hospitals, doctors and nurses are using a new public service announcement to urge Americans to “follow the science” and get vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the latest efforts to curb the virus amid concerns on vaccine misinformation. 

The American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association on Tuesday released a PSA in English and another one with Spanish subtitles in which leaders of each of the groups tell audiences to “ask questions, follow the science and get vaccinated.” 

“The pandemic has tested all of us as we’ve learned to live, work and interact differently,” Ernest Grant, president of the nurse’s group, says at the start of the 30-second video. 

Gerald Harmon, the medical association’s present, goes on to say, “Whether or not you’ve gotten sick, we must strengthen our immunity and our resolve to defeat COVID.” 

Rodney Hochman, the hospital group’s board chair, argued that the vaccines authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration “offer a safe and effective way to keep you and your family and your colleagues safe.” 

The PSA follows previous joint efforts by the groups to urge Americans to protect themselves and their families during the pandemic, including a February video telling people in the early months of vaccine distribution that they should get the shot as soon as they were able. 

The groups also released several PSAs last year urging people to follow safety guidelines such as wearing masks, social distancing and washing their hands frequently to help curb the spread of the virus. 

The latest video effort comes the same day Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said the highly transmissible delta variant is now responsible for 83 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

Walensky said in a hearing before the Senate Health Committee that areas with relatively low vaccination rates could have even higher percentages of the delta variant, with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci saying it could be as high as 90 percent in some places across the country. 

The surge is what Walensky and other health officials are calling a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” emphasizing that those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are largely being spared from the surges in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. 

The Biden administration is working especially to combat vaccine misinformation on social media platforms, with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy saying in an advisory last week that tech companies should do more to limit the spread of false information about the virus, which he called an “urgent threat” undermining efforts to end the pandemic.